The knock-on effect of a strike is one of the factors causing long queues at the Fish Hoek drivers-licence testing centre, according to a City official.
Mayoral committee member for transport, Felicity Purchase, said the manufacturer of the licence cards had been hit by a six-month strike, and there was a backlog of several thousand cards that still had to be collected.
Furthermore, she said, the Hillstar testing centre was not open on Saturdays and was referring applicants to Fish Hoek.
Hillstar was telling applicants to go to other testing centres, such as Fish Hoek, where it was quieter, she said. But the Fish Hoek office, she noted, was also smaller and had limited staff on Saturdays .
Most of the applicants coming on a Saturday were school pupils who couldn’t visit a testing centre during the week.